Many times when I am conducting a demo of our SMART offering (Social Media Analysis and Research Tool) the same questions keeps coming up:

“Who should be looking at this and what am I looking for?”

“Great question!” I respond, and depending on their department (Marketing/Brand, Risk, Fraud, HR and Customer Service) the answer may vary:

Marketing/Brand: At this stage of the game, you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you weren’t including social media analysis as an integral measurement of brand success and share of voice online. By analyzing social media content pertaining to your company, you can track campaign success, gain market intelligence, measure sentiment of your products, discover trends in public perceptions, garner competitive intelligence, and of course identify trademark abuse, slander and reputation issues - and respond accordingly.We recently had a client who launched a campaign only to find (through SMART) that within a day or so of launch, the campaign had become controversial and generated negative discussions on various social media platforms within the gay and lesbian communities. Thanks to SMART, they were able to implement a plan quickly, salvaging their corporate reputation, and clarifying any misunderstandings within the community through tailored messaging in a direct and engaging way.

Risk and Fraud: Issues in these areas include Phishing/Identity Theft schemes launched via social media channels, planned protests, executive threats and threats against psychical locations.Recently through SMART, we discovered a forum discussing the details of an impending protest at an executive’s summer home. Identify potential safety risks and avoiding the creation of a media or PR scandal can easily be diffused in cases like these. Proper law enforcement can be called in as well to monitor the situation closely.According to Gartner Sixty percent of companies will monitor employee social media use by 2015 to search for security breaches.

Human Resources: Social media channels can be a valuable tool to glean information on potential employees, catch inappropriate discussion being conducted by employees, disclosure of confidential company information by employees, fraudulent job postings (fraud and risk will also be concerned) and more.While utilizing SMART for one of our clients, we came across a Facebook post by a potential employee who had a job interview lined up at the company. The candidate actually posted “I have a job interview at “CLIENT” this week - hope they don’t find out about my criminal record.” We know, we know…really? Who could be that dumb??? The truth is – lots of people! (see image for another example)

Customer Service: At the end of the day, the customer matters most and what better way to find out how they really feel than via social media channels. Take the opportunity to really listen to what they’re saying in in order to improve the customer service experience for them and answer the real questions they are asking.

I can provide my own personal example of social media monitoring and corporate reputation here:

I was stuck with a long delay in Philadelphia last month. I decided to voice my complaint on Twitter (while waiting on hold for 20 minutes with the customer service department) and within 15 minutes, the airline’s Twitter handle responded and booked me on a new flight. I was pleasantly surprised! Not only was I able to connect directly with the company instantly which satisfied me as a customer and made me feel valued, but I could then further communicate my pleasant experience and appreciation for the brand to my entire personal social media network – a win win!

The decision to Monitor Social Media is a no brainer. Listen to what your customers are saying, gain insights and uncover potential risks! Companies understand the need now more than ever to be proactive, rather to re-active.

Who’s doing what at your company? How are you balancing out responsibilities for social media monitoring? We want to know!